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Well I managed to get in 10 more stops this weekend…and now headed to Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas for some riding in the twisties and a rally…up to 30 stops now…will see if time permits to get any more this year. Big Bend is more tempting than Amarillo… so maybe will get another 5-8 stops. Has been a glorious weekend to ride so far!!

Not sure I'd want the V11 Hindenburg variant.....

Both those look awesome. Must have been great fun. Riding in the snow can be great fun, but it can be hard. It does make it hard to judge terrain, easy to hit something that you never saw. As to the adventure bike ride, that looks like fun but I would do that same trip on a normal bike. I don't need a two wheeled SUV to do that. The wife has rode her V11 down "roads" worse then that. But that does look like fun. Most of our travels down roads like that are now in a Jeep.

Dual-Sport and Adventure bikes are not in the same class. The old XT, along with similar vintage bikes from other manufacturers at the time, was really just a big dirt bike with a license plate that lets dirt-oriented riders ride into town for gas and lunch, or ride on the road to connect sections of trail, or avoid truck/trailer and just ride out from home. But Adventure bikes, like the new Stelvio, give you the capacity, like the family SUV, to take another person and a lot of stuff. Having both a big dual-sport and an ADV bike, they clearly serve different purposes. IMO, this is proper use of an Adventure Bike (my Stelvio NTX): Load with camping gear and stuff for work in another city. Take a few dirt roads on the way to distant points. And here's how I view the proper use of a Dual Sport (my Husqvarna 701 Enduro): ride the street to the trail, then find out where this creek goes. The 701 would have been torture on the above long-haul trip, and I would have torched the tires. The Stelvio will never see anything like that snow-covered creek bed, at least not with me riding it. I'm glad Moto Guzzi brought the Stelvio name back. Now that they did, every motorcycle reviewer will have to form an opinion about how it compares to the like of various displacement GS models, Africa Twin, Desert X, or Norden. Form what I can see so far, it seems closest to the Africa Twin. And I hope Moto Guzzi sell enough of them that they can afford to make a new LeMans based on the V100 platform.

hydrogen then. for ace burnouts!

It comes down to garage space and time available to actually ride it. We have more bikes right now then we have time for. Sad, but true. I can't justify buying another bike without getting rid of one or two to make room for it, both space wise and time wise. @ScudOur two Huskies are bikes, 401's. One is a 401 cafe bike and the other is a 401 in some sort of Mad Max style with street knobbies and dirtbike handle bars. I get that some people like SUV motorcycles. It just isn't my thing. An actual Dual Sport bike, I could and have done that. But I don't need or want a motorcycle SUV. If someone else does? Fine. No problem. I just don't need something that tall and heavy. I prefer smaller, lighter, better handling, motorcycles. @p6xThe Ducati Monster is the odd bike out but it is the wife's bike. It leaves when she says so. I have a long history of Love/Hate with Ducati's, and if it were up to me we would not have one. But the wife likes the Monster. Always did.

That is what I was expecting, i.e. I expected to see grease come out of the join between the two parts of the shaft as an indication that there was enough grease in there. From my very reliable source I have been informed that (a) normally, excess grease does indeed come out past the O-ring, and (b) when one is greasing the spline with a grease gun and grease comes out of the join, that is already too much. According to my source, one or two pumps of the grease gun is enough. When I think about it, he's right. There is not much space in there. During the course of my experimentation, I pumped some grease into the dismantled end of the other shaft that I have. Two pumps put in enough to, I reckon, more than fill the available space. It might even be one of those fabled "less is more" situations.

I installed the "remote bleeder" for the clutch from the Griso, Breva and what have you the other day. Part #12 here, buy the screw and the seals with it: https://wendelmotorraeder.de/kupplungspumpe-breva-1100-05-07-ex-30_3006_300611_30061110_3006111024.html Bleeding the clutch was very comfortable after that. I had to buggerise around a bit to fasten the end of the extension, but once I had that I could bleed the clutch in a comfortable upright standing position, one hand on the clutch lever, the other on the spanner on the bleeder. It remains to be seen what the permanent solution for the upper end of the bleeder extension will be. For now, it will be secured somewhere out of the way with a cable tie. The first attempt at bleeding involved a carpenters clamp. As I mentioned, a bit of dicking around to get it set up, but it was worth the effort.

Here's the link to the new brand I found as an alternative to Formotion:

The line is secured at the frame under the seat when in normal operation. Bleeding requires moving the line down and away, turning it into a three handed job. Still, easier then trying to access a bleed nipple on the slave cylinder.

I'm sure you can. It wouldn't stay there long, though. Those tiny little molecules are accomplished escape artists.

No rain? I had planned to conclude the tour this week-end, but did not. I have to do the two route 66 stops and will make my way down to Marfa where I am planning to shoot the Guzzi under the starry skies, possibly the Milky Way. However, past week-end with rain precluded it. In the last "Ride Texas" magazine, they actually propose some rides in Arkansas; looks pretty!

Interesting thought that docc- but man there’s already so much weight back there.. … Can you put helium in a tyre?

I think it is a question of mentality. When I got my first motorcycle, I was 16; then it was the legal age to get your motorcycle driver's license. Today, it is 18. My bike was my main mode of transportation. Not leisure. I was going to school with it during the week, and spending my week-ends away from home on it too. Rain or shine, winter or summer.... it did not make any difference to me. Now, compared to the tropical rains we seem to experience each time in Texas, the drizzly cold weathers of my hay days felt easy. My biggest concern when riding storms here, is the lack of visibility. Your visor becomes opaque and grey due to the high density and flow of the water hitting it. You are blind and everything you need to look for is blurry or invisible. As far as residual wetness, the people at the Pioneer barbecue helped me dry my gear. Obviously, I smelled like brisket the rest of the road back home, but it was good to open up my appetite....

So here is the definitive answer to the triple clamp offset question. Twenty years in the pursuit. This is what you get when you use a later top clamp on an early lower clamp with fork tubes fitted. The stem doesn't line up with the stem bore due to the different lower clamp offset. Another difference between the later and earlier lower clamps is the steering damper lug is 7mm longer on the later clamps so you need to machine that amount off the later clamps for the steering damper to fit correctly.

More coolcats on cool Guzzis:

Pray tell, what does "need" have to do with it?

Figured I'd toss this out there, was burrowing through 'Access Norton' ancient posts.